BIOS

Jessica Broussard

Senior Fellow Wright STEAM Magnet Los Angeles, California

By the time she reached high school, Jessica Broussard knew she enjoyed and was good at math. Encouraged by her calculus and statistics teacher to pursue a math degree in college, Jessica enrolled in California Lutheran University. As part of the requirements of earning a math degree, she tutored in the Cal Lutheran math lab one night a week. Helping her peers with their math homework was a very rewarding experience and an area where she excelled. At around the same time, Jessica also worked at the Thousand Oak Teen Center where she had the chance to work closely with at-risk youth.

By her junior year, she combined her desire to work with at-risk youth and her ability to help students understand math and made the decision to be a high school math teacher. Jessica went on to earn her teaching credential and masters degree in education from California Lutheran University. As part of her undergraduate experience, she spent a semester at the Universidad de Guanajuato in Guanajuato, Mexico. Jessica learned to speak Spanish and also had the chance to tutor students in English and math at a local high school. The experience of being in a foreign country where she could not speak the language served as the foundation for her current work with English Language Learners.

Now working at Notre Dame Academy in Los Angeles, Calif., she has the opportunity to work collaboratively with her colleagues to insure a strong education for all students. Jessica, with the help of her administration, has created a new Algebra Intervention Program to target underperforming, at-risk students. She has also been named Santa Paula High School’s “Teacher of the Month” multiple times.

My main goal as a teacher is to help students realize their full potential. Students often come into my class already defeated and assume they can’t do math. I look at that student as a challenge, and work with them one on one every day until that student feels successful and empowered to continue their mathematical journey. There is nothing better than seeing my students succeed.